We had a wonderful weekend in College Station. This is one of our trips to the bookstore - we are such geeks. Thankfully we all love getting lost in the books so no one gets bored.
Kelly is 23, going on 24 weeks and she looks and feels great! They did get the gender confirmed Friday afternoon and unless both sonograms are wrong we are having a little Ava Rose. Kelly and Casey are thrilled and already have the nursery decked out, ready for Ava to arrive.
On Saturday we went to the 'U Paint It' store and picked out ceramic pieces to paint and then fire in the kiln. This may sound like a lame activity, but we had so much fun! I am even more in love with Matthew and Casey as they each picked out their own pieces and sat at the table with us girls and painstakingly painted. Casey made a mug that says "Ava's Daddy" and Matthew painted a beer stein with the Guiness logo on it.
This morning we all visited Kelly and Casey's Sunday school class. They have shared what is going on with our family and the whole class has been praying for us. They went over the same lesson my class went over - James 4. One of the points we discussed was about asking God for what we want. James berates the young Christians and tells them they don't get what they pray for because they are asking selfishly.
I immediately thought of the verse I've memorized on prayer - "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, asking anything you wish and it will be given to you." For me the key part of this verse is the phrase '...and my words remain in you...' I think we all know that God desires to have a close relationship with Him, but sometimes we don't know how to go about that. I firmly believe that we must stay in the word - the Bible - in order to know who God is. We learn about his character through the Bible. He can speak to us through his word -providing us encouragement and even correction. Hey! That brings up another verse I memorized! "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness."
Overall it was a great weekend. I love family...
It WAS a great weekend, wasn't it? I'm so glad we got to see you guys! I love you Mom! :-D
ReplyDeleteI flipped through a daily devotional today and today's lesson was about how God heals us. It really spoke to me. It talked about how once we bring our hurts to God, he begins to heal us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit starts this by pointing out our need for God, and once we recognize the need, the Spirit connects us with God.
ReplyDeleteIt talked about how deeper wounds require a progressive healing and that we might not even know how deeply we are hurt. Once the Holy Spirit reveals how deeply we are hurt, we must ask God to heal each layer of it.
"The Bible (the truth) works in tandem with the Holy Spirit (Spirit of truth)...to cut through the walls we've built up in anger, and it also cuts through the old bandages we've tried to place on our hearts to heal ourselves."
It gave a couple of verses that were good..."Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise." Jeremiah 17:14 and "God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds..." Psalm 147:3
Thought you might like it...love you!